"VAN" (Sports Desk - 22.10.2025) :: Tokyo 2020 Olympic team gold medallist Angelina Melnikova posted the highest all-around score across two days and 10 subdivisions of women’s qualifying at the 2025 World Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Competing in Tuesday’s (21 October) ninth group, she tallied a 54.566 ahead of Japan’s Sugihara Aiko’s 54.099. Olympic uneven bars champion Kaylia Nemour of Algeria sits third with a 53.865.
Melnikova began her competition on the vault, where she performed a double-twisting Yurchenko for a 14.233. In order to be eligible for the vault apparatus final, she then competed a Cheng (Yurchenko half-on, front one-and-a-half twist off), a skill she hadn’t performed since the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Her 14.366 earned her a 14.499 average after receiving a 0.200 bonus for performing two vaults with different post-flights.
She leads the apparatus standings there.
“I was so nervous because I haven’t done this vault since Tokyo, so that’s why I was so nervous,” Melnikova said afterwards. “After I was in Paris, I realised that I must do it because if I want to get a medal at the Worlds, I need the difficulty.”
The 2021 world all-around champion looked like she would roll from there, especially as she added a 14.500 on the uneven bars, but errors crept in on the balance beam, where she fell on her acrobatic series, and floor exercise. She earned scores of 12.733 and 13.100, respectively.
“I’m so happy to be here. It’s my first major competition since 2021,” said Melnikova. “I’m a little bit upset about my mistake on beam and on floor because I have a dream to be world champion on floor. But I am happy about my vault because it is so difficult.”
Sugihara and Nemour competed Monday, with the Japanese solid across all four events. Nemour, the history-making Algerian, was spectacular on the uneven bars, where her 15.533 is far and away the best score, but fell on both the vault and the balance beam.
While Melnikova and Nemour sit atop the vault and uneven bars leaderboard, the People’s Republic of China’s Zhang Qingying leads the balance beam with a 14.366, and Romania’s Sabrina Voinea holds the best mark on the floor exercise, a 13.666.
Competition at the World Gymnastics Championships continues Wednesday (22 October) with the men’s all-around final.
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